Tampopo

Tampopo
is a 1985 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Juzo Itami, and starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Kōji Yakusho, and Ken Watanabe. The publicity for the film calls it the first "ramen western", a play on the term Spaghetti Western (films about the American Old West made by Italian production studios).
Plot
A pair of truck drivers, the experienced Gorō and a younger colleague named Gun, stop at a decrepit roadside ramen noodle shop. Outside, Gorō rescues a boy who is being beaten by three schoolmates. The boy, Tabo, is the son of Tampopo, the widowed owner of the struggling ramen shop, Lai Lai. A customer called Pisken harasses Tampopo, demanding that she sell the shop. Gorō suggests Pisken be quiet so he can enjoy his meal, then provokes a physical confrontation. Gorō puts up a good fight but, outnumbered by Pisken and his men, he is knocked out and awakens the next morning in Tampopo's home.
The next morning, she kindly cooks Gorō and Gun breakfast in her home kitchen and sends Tabo off to school. While eating breakfast, Tampopo asks for their opinion of her ramen, Gorō and Gun tell her they are "sincere, but lack character." After Gorō gives her some advice, she asks him to become her teacher. They decide to turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle soup making". She and Gorō visit her competitors and he points out their strengths and weaknesses. She still is struggling to fix the broth, so Gorō visits a homeless encampment to enlist the "old master" and his superlative expertise. When they rescue a wealthy elderly man from choking on his food, the man lends her the services of his chauffeur Shohei, who has a masterly way with noodles. Through clever trickery, they pry ramen secrets from their competitors. Gun and his friends give Tampopo a makeover as a modern proprietress. During the transition, the group agrees to change the restaurant's name from "Lai Lai" to "Tampopo".
Pisken feels bad for being too drunk to tell his men to stay out of the fight, so he offers Gorō another chance one-on-one. After the rematch ends in a draw, Pisken reveals he is a contractor and Tampopo's childhood friend, and offers to renovate the shop's interior. Tampopo's latest effort still comes up short, so Pisken teaches her his own secret recipe. When the five men consume her latest creation down to the last drop, Tampopo knows she has won. Tabo also triumphs, beating all three of his tormentors and subsequently befriending them. As customers fill her newly redecorated shop, the men file out one by one.
Throughout the film, other minor scenes of other characters are featured. A group of business executives visit a French restaurant but have no idea how to order and are upstaged by a surprisingly worldly subordinate. A women's etiquette class on how to eat spaghetti silently in the European manner abruptly changes course on observing a white man slurping his noodles. A supermarket clerk catches an aged woman obsessed with squeezing food. A con man uses an elaborate meal to lure a victim into an investment scam; the victim is himself a thief but is so taken by the meal that he fails to leave with the con man's wallet before being arrested. A housewife rises from her deathbed to cook one last meal for her family, who mournfully eat to memorialize her. A man and his lover explore erotic ways to use food. The man is ultimately shot several times by an unknown assailant, to his lover's horror, though he is satisfied at the end of his life and hopes to see it play out like a film. A woman on a park bench breastfeeds an infant.
Cast
Tsutomu Yamazaki as Gorō
Nobuko Miyamoto as Tampopo
Kōji Yakusho as Man in White Suit
Ken Watanabe as Gun
Rikiya Yasuoka as Pisuken
Kinzō Sakura as Shōhei
Yoshi Katō as Noodle-making master
Hideji Ōtaki as Rich Old Man
Fukumi Kuroda as Man in White Suit's mistress
Setsuko Shinoi as Old Man's mistress
Yoriko Dōguchi as Pearl diver (Oyster girl)
Masahiko Tsugawa as Supermarket manager
Yoshihiro Katō as Man in White Suit's henchman
Mariko Okada as Spaghetti sensei
Ryūtarō Ōtomo as Ramen master
Toshiya Fujita as Man with Toothache (un-credited)
Production
Throughout, the film references stereotypical American movie themes, characters, music, and camera shots.
Release
A road show release of Tampopo was distributed by Toho on November 23, 1985. The film was released by New Yorker Films in the United States in 1987.
The Criterion Collection prepared a 4K restoration of Tampopo that was released in theatres in October 2016.
Reception
Critical response
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, commenting that "Like the French comedies of Jacques Tati, it's a bemused meditation on human nature in which one humorous situation flows into another offhandedly, as if life were a series of smiles."
Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote, "The movie, which Itami calls a 'noodle western,' is a rambunctious mixture of the bawdy and the sublime." "Tampopo is perhaps the funniest movie about the connection between food and sex ever made."
Andrew Johnston writing in Time Out New York commented: "This film is his broadest comedy by far, and its principal subjects are those great global constants, food and sex. That, combined with the plot's sly evocation of movie Westerns, made it widely accessible to foreign audiences."
Vincent Canby provided a somewhat dissenting, though still positive, opinion in his New York Times review, stating, "Though it's not consistently funny... Tampopo is one of the more engaging films to be shown in this year's [New Directors/New Films] series." "Mr. Itami often strains after comic effects that remain elusive. The most appealing thing about Tampopo is that he never stops trying."
Tampopo has received unanimous praise from critics, with a 100% approval rating and average score of 8.53/10 from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 52 reviews. The site's critical consensus states, "Thanks to director Juzo Itami's offbeat humor and sharp satirical edge, Tampopo is a funny, sexy, affectionate celebration of food and its broad influence on Japanese culture."
Accolades
Tampopo received two Japanese Academy Awards: for Best Editing and for Best Sound. In the United States, it was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film and a National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay and Best Director.
Legacy
The 2008 American/Japanese movie The Ramen Girl, in which a girl played by Brittany Murphy learns how to cook ramen, contains many references to Tampopo, including a cameo by Tsutomu Yamazaki.
A number of ramen restaurants around the world have been named Tampopo.
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Ashkenazi, Michael. "Food, Play, Business, and the Image of Japan in Itami Juzo's Tampopo". In Anne Bower, ed., Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film (New York: Routledge, 2004).
External links
Tampopo at the Japanese Movie Database
Tampopo: Ramen for the People an essay by Willie Blackmore at the Criterion Collection
1985 films
1985 comedy films
1980s sex comedy films
1980s Japanese-language films
Japanese sex comedy films
Japanese satirical films
Cooking films
Films about food and drink
Films directed by Jūzō Itami
Films set in Tokyo
Films set in restaurants
Yakuza films
1980s Japanese films